Exporting with fx and automation

[Kirby H]

Greetings all,

My laptop is old and starting to give me problems. I had a new desktop built and I'm trying to export projects from laptop to new PC through USB, and  an External hard drive.  These projects are/were in mixing, and mastering process with automation, and FX already completed.  For the life of me I can't complete the task.  The tracks will export fine, but none of the FX, or automation exports with it.  I'm afraid my laptop is going to explode, and need to get this done asap.  Here are the steps I've tried so far.

1) Project      ( tried selection with multiple trax, and then single trax)

      File

      Export

      Formats: (Audio) (Template )

     Destination: (USB) (External Drive) (Desktop)

     FIle Types: Wave

     Source: Entire Mix & Tracks

     Channel Format: Follow Source

     Presets: Master Mix

     Mix Enabled:  All

     Export

The tracks export fine, but without all the hours of work put into mixing etc.

Question # 1:  Is what I'm asking even possible, and if so how? I'll need step by step help with this, and I thank you in advance.

Question # 2:   Can I have Two Cakewalk DAWS on a solo Desktop, but each on a different drive.  Thinking maybe transfer PC 2 PC.  The new PC only has a couple of tracks saved on it, so I could uninstall, and then proceed with transfer if needed.  I know I'm making this more difficult then it has to be, but I just can't remember how it's done. 

thanks

[John]

You don't export the FX. Plugins are installed on the new machine. If you used per project folders all you need to do is copy the project folder to the new HD. This will include all audio and project files. 

If you did not use per project folders but used a group audio folder copy the directory where you stored your projects to the new HD. Be sure it also includes the global audio folder. Then when you open a project in the new machine you may need to tell Cakewalk where the audio is.

Automation is saved in the project.

[David Baay]

+1   to just bringing a copy of the project over the new machine.

But to answer the question... the effect of FX inserted directly in the FX bin of each track should be applied to the exported track so long as the Track FX and Automation boxes are checked in the export dialogue.

But FX on buses to which the track is sending or outputting won't be included. To get those, you would need to solo the track, export with Source = Buses, and select the Master or some upstream bus that collects all the output from that track and its sends. But keep in mind that many FX (especially dynamic FX like compression)  won't behave the same when only one track is active.

Typically you would either export tracks without bus FX or export buses as 'stems' that include all the tracks and send FX that route that bus. Trying to do anything in between will not generally give the desired end result of having the sum of the exports sound like the Master bus.

[grannis]

On 8/19/2019 at 6:37 PM, David Baay said:

... Trying to do anything in between will not generally give the desired end result of having the sum of the exports sound like the Master bus.

of course, but you might still want Bus FX when exporting racks - the option appears to be there but doesn't work.

Recently I need to apply the same EQ  and limiting to a whole bunch of songs, so I thought - I'll drop them in cakewalk, put the fx on the bus once, adjust to taste, export all tracks, done.

I was scratching my head to figure out why it wasn't working, until I found this thread.

Knowing that this is the way it works does help - just copy the effects from the bus to all the tracks right?  Except that if you need export them to test your work, you have to do this every time you audition a new version. And at some point you find yourself wondering if you remembered to copy them all, so you do it again just to be sure. So what I thought was an hour's work ended up taking a day a and a half.

Even so, this was still better than the idea that you solo the track and export the entire mix.. which is just not practical when you have 30 to do, and have to do this a few times to get it right.

 

So yes, it would be really great to have an option to apply Bus FX to track exports.

btw, for the same kind of reasons, I'd really like to see an "Exclusive Solo" option on tracks. A bit like what you get when comping take lanes.

[martsave martin s]

the  Presets box as to be set to= [what you hear]

[John Vere]

As said it works 100% to just simply copy all your folders to the new machine and open them there. I do this a lot. Never had an issue.

I use a custom workspace on the new machine to convert the Laptops 1 screen setting over to my main DAW's dual screens.  

As long as both have all the same VST's installed I've never had a project not play properly. 

I have always used pre project folders. 

Each song has it's own folder.